The missing link: Finding an enumeration district
This post is from Mark Olsen, MyHeritage business development manager and genealogist:
As a genealogist, I’m excited about the release of the 1940 census. Not only will it be online but - better yet - it will be available directly from WorldVitalRecords.com and MyHeritage.com on the very day that NARA releases the census to the public.
It is essential for researchers to know their enumeration districts (EDs) to ensure their early success on April 2nd. The last thing you want to do is call Grandma to help you find the location you should be searching instead of actually spending time in the census images. Continue reading "The missing link: Finding an enumeration district" »
What’s in a Name: Nicknames and genealogy
How often have you found a letter or reference to a family member with a name you don’t recognize?
We often call loved ones with variants of their names, commonly known as “nicknames’.” There are certain names usually shortened (James – Jim, Sally – Sal) but often, especially within families and groups of friends, nicknames are terms of endearment (hopefully!).
Have you come across a nickname in your family history research? What should you do and how should you record it? Continue reading "What’s in a Name: Nicknames and genealogy" »
Photographs: Enrich your family history
This is a guest post by James L. Tanner*
Nothing can do more to make your family history come alive than finding old family photographs and you might be surprised at where those photographs can be found.
Photographs of individuals and families became popular in the mid-1800s and since that time it is estimated that as many as 3.5 trillion photos have been taken. Obviously, only a very, very few of these trillions of photos are even vaguely interesting to you as a genealogist or family historian, but there are enough photos out there that you may wish to make an effort to see if any photos of your ancestral family members or the places they lived may have escaped your notice.
Continue reading "Photographs: Enrich your family history" »
WDYTYA Live!: MyHeritage heads to London
Following our successful RootsTech 2012 participation, the MyHeritage team now heads to London for the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE family history show. Some 17,000 attendees are anticipated over the three-day event, Friday-Sunday, February 24-26.
The event will be held in the National Hall at the Olympia Exhibition Halls on Olympia Way, and features many expert speakers on diverse topics, workshops, many genealogy related vendors and more.
MyHeritage’s Head of Genealogy (UK) Laurence Harris will give the Keynote Presentation - “Breaking Down the Barriers with Social Networking – Strategies and Tricks” – at 1pm Saturday, followed by a Q&A panel session, with genealogy experts D. Joshua Taylor, Lisa Louise Cooke, Peter Christian, Paul Howes and Daniel Lynch.
The WDYTYA team includes:
Continue reading "WDYTYA Live!: MyHeritage heads to London" »
WDYTYA: Marisa Tomei’s odyssey
Following the large audience for the third-season premiere of the US-version of Who Do You Think You Are? - starring Martin Sheen - the second episode focused on Marisa Tomei.
Tomei's story concerned her murdered great-grandfather, and the false belief held by her family about the event's circumstances.
Her odyssey takes her from Brooklyn to Tuscany, Elba, Castiglioncello and Lucca to find the truth about the event, and her mother's BIANCHI and CANOVARO families. Her father, Gary, had already done extensive research on the TOMEI family tree.
Continue reading "WDYTYA: Marisa Tomei’s odyssey" »
RootsTech 2012: Day two highlights
It was another exciting day at RootsTech. The MyHeritage booth was very busy all day, as the team told those who stopped by how MyHeritage and World Vital Records can help advance their research. Visitors were a mix of those new to MyHeritage, along with those who were already members.
Schelly, Steve Morse and Mark
A large audience heard Dave Barney of Google present the many uses of Google for genealogy. He demonstrated various features, ranging from Google Maps and how to pinpoint your ancestors on a street level view map and how to zoom in to their historic homes, churches and more to show your family’s living history. He shared a photo of the Swedish church – still standing - where his ancestors were married more than two centuries ago. The building was shown in Google street view.
Continue reading "RootsTech 2012: Day two highlights" »
WDYTYA: An interview with Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow in the episode on her own family (Season 1, Episode 3)
Lisa Kudrow, executive producer of the US version of “Who Do You Think You Are?” was the guest for a group phone interview on Friday, January 27.
I was honored to participate in the call which focused on the show’s new season, which begins at 8pm, Friday, February 3, on NBC.
This year"s celebs are Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Reba McEntire, Rob Lowe, Helen Hunt, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jerome Bettis, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.
Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, my own questions could not be answered. However, the others asked some great questions, and Lisa responded in kind (see below).
Other geneabloggers on the call were Thomas MacEntee, Lisa Louise Cooke, Angela Walton-Raji, Kathryn Lake Hogan and Diane Haddad, along with newspaper and entertainment industry magazine writers.
Here are some questions and Lisa’s responses.
Q: What advice do you have for people who become frustrated or stuck in their research?
Lisa: There doesn’t have to ever be an end. That's what makes it such a great hobby. I think there's always research you can do on different branches, different cousins and you go back. And then it's not just names and dates. Then you start looking at where they were living, what was happening there at that time, you start looking at historical documents. And you can maybe draw some conclusions or guesses about what was motivating some of their choices in life.
Continue reading "WDYTYA: An interview with Lisa Kudrow" »
RootsTech 2012: Day one highlights
MyHeritage’s experience at RootsTech has been a success, from setup to live hangouts and a very busy booth on the first day.
MyHeritage booth at RootsTech, before the conference began
The team began setting up Wednesday afternoon. Our booth is a real standout with double arches of balloons in the MyHeritage logo colors. Everyone knows where our booth is located as the colorful balloons fly high above the exhibit floor.
MyHeritage Super Search
Today, the opening day, our CEO/founder Gilad Japhet demonstrated the new MyHeritage Super Search technology. The new online research system greatly expands search functionality and takes into account user errors, common name variations, and other important details which, in the past, have not been included in most ancestral searches. There are many options to filter results by collections, via additional refining, advanced search and filtering capabilities as demonstrated in his presentation. This exciting new research system is still under development.
Continue reading "RootsTech 2012: Day one highlights" »
Poll: Have you discovered an ancestral home?
Census records are a fantastic tool.
However, the details in the records leave much to the imagination. That is - of course - until you investigate the address listed on the census entry.
It's the part of the puzzle that brings context to the lives of our ancestors. The type of house, the bedroom-to-inhabitant ratio, the local area and surrounding industry - these are all fascinating elements that help us visualise our ancestors' lives.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a not-too-distant home that was shared among a few generations on my maternal side. Lavish, it wasn't; however, the insight into their lifestyle was a humbling experience.
Let us know in the poll below if you've visited any ancestral homes. Alternatively, please leave a comment below.
Continue reading "Poll: Have you discovered an ancestral home?" »
One blogger’s story: Denielle Radcliff Koch
There are more than 2,000 genealogy blogs – known as geneablogs - in cyberspace, and more appear every day.
While some focus on a researcher’s own family, or specialize in a certain country, town or ethnicity, others provide assistance to researchers via tips and tricks of the trade.
Blogger Denielle Radcliff Koch, 29, of North Carolina, fits into several categories with two working blogs and another in planning.
Her mother always told stories about her family. In her teens, Denielle dabbled in genealogy by just talking to relatives. She began seriously researching when her great-grandmother passed away soon after her daughter’s birth.
“Once I got going, I was hooked.”
When she first began researching, her daughter was a colicky baby and Denielle and her husband were on a very tight budget. She couldn’t afford to pay for genealogy website subscriptions. Library visits with the baby weren’t in the cards, either.
“So I started searching the internet to see what I could find for free. I was surprised to find that there’s actually a lot of stuff out there. “
Continue reading "One blogger’s story: Denielle Radcliff Koch" »
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